


Race At Arms: Origins

by Kane Hikari (Blachart517)



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 03:30:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4861337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blachart517/pseuds/Kane%20Hikari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a story of a friend of mine. </p><p>This story is of The Guardians and how they achieved a great victory during a long harrowing war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Race At Arms: Origins

Today was the day I had been waiting for, the first real victory in this god forsaken war, if you ask me. The wind blew hard as I ran down the street that led to the ruins of the Space Needle which had collapsed during the first combat almost six years ago. My armor was heavy and I needed to rest, so finding a nearby collapsed jersey barrier, I sat down letting the children of the refugees I was sent to rescue gather around me. They were full of questions.  
“Are you a real knight?” One asked.  
I nodded in reply  
“Are your friends and you the one saving everyone?” Asked another and I nodded again.  
“Can you tell us a story of an adventure?” questioned a third.  
To this I looked at my friends, Knights like me (one in red armor, the other in blue) and they shook their heads no. My helmet melted down into the armor and I smiled at them, tracing a circle in the air with my hand.  
“I think we have time, though this is not my story, it is that of a dear friend.” The children cheered at this.  
And so I began the story.  
──────

It was five years after companies had been allowed to buy large portions of land in an effort to bail the government out of international debts. Security teams for companies had become the world's militaries, and Justin Green had been generously “recruited” by a company named Macrosoft. He defended his sector as required until he was approached by a family seeking refuge from the local combat and so he did what was right, bringing them into the shelter of his own home; a home monitored by Macrosoft.  
It was that night he paid for it; shortly after Justin fell asleep ten agents of the District Security Task Force burst through the door. The men arrested Justin under a charge of treason and the family for failure to register for citizenship, all charges horrible acts, none of which would have held up in the old courts. The family was jailed and prepared for the work camps to the west, Justin got a worse fate. Even though it was his first offense in the region, he was sent to the local arena so the chairmen could make an example of him.

The arenas were terrible places you went expecting to die. And when there were matches, everyone was expected to watch. These matches consisted of four to eight prisoners battling to the death, occasionally supplied with a single weapon of their choice by the reigning “government.” The inside of the arena is a bit like the Roman Coliseum, except the center is full of trees and shrubbery. The entire match is broadcast by hundreds of motion activated cameras spread throughout the forest. By now you may be wondering what the prize is for the victor, well there are options; one is joining the local security team, be sold to another company or freedom. Never choose freedom, you are exiled into the wastelands where life cannot exist, more often than not the free will to die.  
When Justin awoke it was by an officer yelling that his match was in a few minutes. Half asleep at first and having ignored anyone who yelled at him since he was eleven, Justin was a suddenly wide awake at the mention of a match. It was only the night before that he had been brought in a match after one night was unheard of. Standing up he found himself in a full prison jumpsuit already, so he spent the rest of his precious few minutes focusing his mind on old training. It wasn’t long before a second guard came to his cell and guided him to an elevator that led to the arena above.  
On the elevator Justin held out his hand for whatever weapon that Macrosoft had afforded him and instead got a single small case with a note, upon opening the case all he could do was stare, inside the case were three darts for a blow gun labeled JG-072. These were weapons he designed for non-lethal take-down, but never released them to the public, how did they get this? He looked to the officer, opened his mouth to ask but they drew his attention to their chest where two badges rested, the Macrosoft crest of course but it was the second that shocked him. The second badge was a shield with crossed swords, on the shield was the symbol for earth, and on earth was a golden letter “G”, the symbol of the Guardians. Closing his mouth he went to the note and read both sides, on one all it had was 'non-lethal', and on the other there were coordinates inside the Wastes and the word 'Freedom’.

Suddenly the doors opened, Justin stashed the note in the case and stuffed the case in his suits pocket. The announcements burst over the speakers describing the details of the match: Four combatants all male, firearms permitted four prize choices, and finally the combatant’s names and weapons, Justin listed as unarmed. The fighters had been split between the cardinal directions, four entrances, and to make matters worse, the others had rifles while he was practically unarmed. It was times like these that Justin loved the fact that he was trained for extreme conditions. Stepping out of the elevator he charged forward, ran up the trunk of the nearest tree, grabbed the lowest branch and pulled himself up.

  
Up in the treetops there were no cameras, meaning no show for anyone from Justin, and that was exactly how he wanted it. The trees were old and strong, their branches so closely knit that all he had to do was briskly walk once he was high enough in the trees. Using this advantage to move almost silently through the branches he understood how those new to woodlands would be hesitant to enter so he took his chances and circled the perimeter, moving swiftly to his first target, then waiting for them to wander just a little too close to the edge. It only took the span of two minutes for the first man to come close, gathering enough courage to venture into the woods ahead, and a bad mistake. Justin crept above his target, slowly moving into position. The attack was a swift, decisive victory; he jumped down behind the man, grabbing the gun and directing it towards the cameras as the trigger was pulled in fear. As the clip ran out Justin pulled out a dart out and jammed it into the man's arm, whispering “Forgive me” as he did so.

  
Kneeling down over the man who was now in a form of stasis due to the chemicals that moved the blood but the heart didn't pump resulting in a lack of pulse. Justin scavenged the rifle and the extra clips, reloaded and strapped it to his back, then ascended into the treetops again, but now his prey would be on alert due to the gunshots. Drawing upon experience and instinct he made his way to the next target, focused on keeping the man alive; the less death the better. A jolt ran through Justin's body as a gunshot rang out in the still air. His pupils dilated as adrenaline coursed through his veins. Powers long unused surged to life and his vision split, half from his own eyes and half from the cameras. Everything the cameras saw he saw, and knew where the cameras lit up, using this Justin tracked his quarry's path and moved ahead of both, one running in fear and injured, the other on the hunt. The adrenaline running through Justin's veins put his powers into overdrive; every step he took caused a nearby camera to explode. Error messages started flooding into the control room of the arena. Justin surged forward carried by the discharged electricity of the cameras; leaping several branches at a time he came to the spot where he knew the two would collide, his only chance to catch them both by surprise. Focusing almost all of his remaining energy into a pulse around him, he blacked out all of the remaining cameras at the same time by pulling the electricity into his body and using it to enhance his reflexes and cognitive abilities, making his aim near perfect.

  
The men came into the small clearing just as Justin finished absorbing the electricity. The one that was running and clutching his arm where the first bullet had hit tripped and fell, spinning in the air to land on his back. The rifleman, descended on his victim, raising his rifle for the killing shot, his target raising their hand, pleading for him to stop, but he would not. The weapon raised, he put his finger to the trigger and squeezed. Two gunshots rang out into the open air and the two men stared at each other trying to figure out what just happened. Justin fired his rifle twice, one shot to wrench the weapon out of the rifleman's grip so he couldn't fire; the second destroyed the firing mechanism. The men only had seconds to realize what had happened before they heard what sounded like the beginning of a prayer followed by a stinging pain then a swirling darkness from which they could not wake.

  
In the control room the vitals of the combatants was all they go off of to determine victory without the cameras, and right now it was only Justin’s vitals showing life. The control center was forced to call it, but they weren't happy about it. The announcements were delayed, as officials moved to reward the victor with his prize. Four men in suits, cameramen on their heels, marched up to Justin, congratulating him on his victory and openly stating that they only wished that it had been on camera. It was normally at this that they offered the “prize” but a choice was not provided. Instead Justin was hand-cuffed and one of the suited men leaned forward and said “Congratulations Mr. Green, you have been awarded freedom for your show of skill in the Arena today.” All an act for the cameras, anyone who had been in the Arena knew it was a death sentence. The four suited men escorted Justin out of the Arena, and finally into a helicopter, to take him to the nearest wastes, a desert created by the never ending war.

The Guardians, a secret organization of well trained soldiers, unattached to any government, an instrument of peace. The group was originally created as a band of demon hunters in the dark ages when demons ravaged the lands. As time moved on they evolved into a secret military running many operations, both to start and stop wars in areas when action was deemed necessary. Time moved ever forward and eventually the Hikari family was assigned the title of Grand Master, head of the Guardians. Under the lead of the Hikari Family the Guardians grew more powerful and numerous, causing an increased need for bases, and so Masters were selected and scattered across the globe.  
The objective of these Masters was to secure land and start up dummy organizations above ground while cautiously building bases below. Revenue from the organizations was used fund operations below. Through minor genetic enhancements each and every soldier developed special abilities, mostly for combat, some were to increase productivity in R&D labs. It was ten years ago that the Guardians dispersed and disbanded, right after Grand Master Myou was defeated, since then all bases were supposedly abandoned and all projects shut down.

The flight wasn't too long, and since the cuffs were a formality the flight wasn't terribly uncomfortable either. Kicking up sand as it came down the helicopter landed on a small dune; obviously Justin got shoved out first. The helicopter immediately took off and before tilting away a guard threw out a metal briefcase and the rifle used in the Arena. As the vehicle flew away the cuffs received a release code and unlocked falling from his wrists. Patting his chest he felt the case from the Arena and stood, opened it and retrieved the note inside then tossed the case into the sand. Walking over to the briefcase he picked it up, opening it to find two items a solar powered GPS and a single clip with only one bullet. If he was going to survive he had to find the base soon.  
Activating the GPS he punched in the coordinates off of the paper and started walking, it was nightfall by the time he found the location specified and his panic levels were on the rise. Before him rested a single door, sealed tight and impossible to crack with his abilities worn out as they were, and so he had to guess the vocal command, or password in this case. And so, Justin made his way through a list of words as simple as “free” to as old as a few bars of random songs, but nothing he tried would work. It was late into the night when a thought occurred to him, but it was stupid and there was no way anyone in their right mind would choose it. Left with no choice and desperate he decided to try the idea.  
Standing before the door he said “There is no way that the password is ‘Open Sesame’”. There was silence in the time that followed that was almost deafening, but right when he was about to give up and leave there was a loud ‘shunk’ of the lock opening followed by a 'hiss' as door swung open. Walking forward and down the stairs he couldn't help but mutter “I am so going to kill the smartass that set the password”. Behind him the door closed and he was lost to the shadows of the night.

  
It was a long walk down into the abyss and there had been many pitfalls along the way. Stepping off of the last stair Justin was faced with a large open room, slowly lighting up, one row of lights at a time. The room had only proven itself to be useless to him, when the final row turned on revealing two dozen training dummies in a training room and an elevator door, these bases were a hive of rooms meaning he would be searching it for hours. Pressing the button to call the elevator caused the doors to open immediately; revealing an open shaft with two cables hanging to the bottom, but no elevator his only option left was to climb down, so he did. It was the next floor down that he just had to stop and look around, seeing the doorways exiting the shaft split two ways, one labeled level two, and the other clearly marked as the armory, no better bid at freedom than a good gun. Swinging across the gap, Justin steadied himself on the edge, pressing the emergency open button. The door opened and he slipped inside as yet more light filled the room, a sigh of sadness slipped from his lips as he looked around seeing nothing, less than nothing even, on a long table sat a small box of badges, a single light rifle and a silver sword with a cross hand guard, a demon slaying sword. Remembering a promise long ago he first pinned a badge to his chest and placed the sword on his hip.

Activating the badge caused small machines, unstable nanites to be exact, to crawl out and across his body, and begin eating the cloth, dead skin, and other various non-living materials. When the nanites had worked their way across the entire body they reformed into a comfortable suit with the silver sword hanging from the belt. From there he scanned the light rifle with the badge, then fed the weapon to the nanites, now by simply holding out his hand the nanites would form a working copy of the weapon. No stranger to combat, he placed the original rifle given to him on the table, scanned and absorbed it, then moved back down the hall to the other side of the elevator shaft, looking for anything else that was useful before he left. The other side of the floor was similar to the armory, in the fact that it opened as a hall, then a larger room, but it was very different as it was filled with cells made of glass, many of which had been shattered. A chill ran down his spine as he looked at the cells, he knew exactly what they had been used for, and what It was made this place very dangerous, His suit shimmered and shifted to a regulation Guardians combat uniform, complete with a sealed helmet filtering the air to near purity levels. Holding out his gloved hand the light rifle formed and he bought it to the ready position. He stepped across broken glass, looking warily into the shadows, always expecting something to go wrong, something to jump out of him. It was half way down the hall that he started to let his guard down, lowering his weapon, holding it in a comfortable fashion; It was then that he was attacked, a creature leapt from the shadows, slamming into him. Justin was launched down the hall, landing and skidding he brought the gun up and fired a beam of concentrated light into it’s chest. The air filled with the scent of burning flesh, and the creature roared in anger. It leapt again, clawing at him, tearing at his suit and chest. The claws managed to cut him before he could pull out his sword and lop off the arm, causing vile black blood to spew from the limb. In fear the thing backed off. It wasn’t used to pain. Justin seized the moment by getting up and charging at it.  
He swung the blade like a mad man, chopping at any bit of the creature within the reach of the long sword. The battle lasted no longer than a minute but to him it felt like hours of hard battling. Nothing clung to the blade that now rested its tip on the ground, and he stood staring at the demolished body of the hellish creature.

 

All of his senses were on overdrive fueled by fear and pain. The creature's body twitched and in a state of sheer panic he formed the light rifle in his hands and didn't stop shooting until the venting system opened up forcing him to stop firing unless he wanted it to explode on him. The gun merged with the suit again and he sheathed the sword, he couldn't help but stare at what was left of the beast’s body. Remembering the dozens of shattered cells from earlier Justin was forced to keep moving forward instead of dwelling on the damage done. As he continued he had several small encounters with these creatures, mostly them running off into the shadows or to lower floors. All he knew was they weren't bothering him and that would be good enough. At the end of the hall he found two doors and an emergency locker with four replacement battery and coolant packs, and a few focusing cylinders. The item he was happiest to find was a medical kit filled with every medical item you could need short of an emergency room that was on another floor. Scanning and absorbing the case, the nanites went to work on his chest wound, disinfected then, stitched it up and purged the poison of the creature’s claws and finally applied a pain and scar reducing cream to the wound, and finally the suit sealed over it, as if he had never been harmed in the first place.  
Looking to the left and right he had two options, go upstairs and escape or go down and explore some more, checking the doors he found that the one heading up was locked, only one way to go now. Down a short flight of stairs, he found himself in the living quarters, complete with a mess hall and the Master’s bed. Making his way down the hall he found bloodstains on the sheets, dented and sealed foot lockers. Many men and women had died in there and he hated the idea of looting the dead but unfortunately it was necessary.

  
Opening the first locker he approached, to his surprise he found an ammunition supply, completely against regulations, inside the locker was a single scatter cylinder (SC for short), a clip of .223 ammo, a med kit, and most importantly a Guardian badge. Moving to the next, and the many after, through the generosity of the dead, Justin managed to find a colt .45 with a case of 25 silver-tipped AP rounds, a silver shrapnel grenade, multiple flash lights, and a silver combat knife along with several badges. After absorbing the weapons that were actually capable of being converted into nanites, he opened the elevator doors, looking across the gap he saw the words above the far door labeling it as the central security room, from there he should be able to find out what the hell happened in this terrible place.

  
After opening the door remotely, Justin jumped across the gap to face a scorched room, the burn patterns indicated a flash detonation, a truly desperate move for any Guardian, only someone who had accepted death had the courage to do it. Looking around he spotted burned corpses, human and beast. Above him he could see the handle of a knife, the blade itself embedded in the steel. Shaking his head at the damage, he made his way to the computer and leaned on the desk, gathering his will power to speak “Whiskey?” there was a long pause and finally a low hum filled the room in response. Justin smiled “execute protocol Lazarus please” another hum, this one a little higher pitch. The computer buzzed and monitors blinked on and off, some hissing and spitting sparks in protest. Finally one screen focused enough to allow viewing. “Please show me why this base is so badly damaged.” The hum replied again and the screen started to rewind through all the events that happened years ago, stopping at a camera view of the surface streets when the desert had been a city. The view-point changed, now through the helmet camera of a Guardian uniform.

  
This soldier and ten others ran out, holding out their arms and producing shields that fastened themselves to the ground creating a blast resistant barrier, they had been trained to stop explosive disasters but not bombing runs, and so the last thing seen through the camera was the soldier looking up to see a bomb coming straight down at them. The camera changed again, this time it was inside, the words in the corner said R&D camera 2. In the distance above one could hear explosion after explosion go off. The scientist looked around nervously as they moved among three large cubes and several other experiments being prepared for implementation. A loud explosion rocked the room, and a beast burst through the door then charged at the scientists. Men and women of science weren’t trained for combat, and so they dove for cover. The beast charged forward, swiping at a scientist who barely managed the dodge the attack. The creature’s claws scratched one of the cubes and a red light lit up the room, “Level three containment breach. Terminating project batch one.” Said a voice from the intercom system. Immediately following the announcement the container exploded killing the scientist and the beast but it tore a deep gash in the second container. “Level five containment breach, nanites active, emergency protocol active, purge commenced.” All doors in the room sealed tight and the third cube pulled into the ground and the floor sealed above it. Afterward a loud buzzing noise filled the room followed by a bright flash and a dead camera.

  
Justin turned away suddenly sick of being in this damned building. Not even bothering to check the distance, he leapt into the elevator shaft. Now knowing what was intended for him when he came in. Not even three feet above the ground he reached up and grabbed both of the elevator cables stopping his fall then and there. “Whiskey, I am done with these games, and the base, open all of floor five, that's an order.” He said the hum replying deep and short, obviously angry. The doors opened, and after wards Justin checked both directions, spotting a FT-42 “Black Knight” transport Jet.  
An idea started working its way through his head. “Whiskey, transfer yourself through the Black Knight and to its companion War Horse, now.” This time the hum was almost excited. Moving as fast as he could, Justin charged into the R&D room, looking around for any familiar markings that could lead him to that third cube. If, and only if, he was right he might be able to correct the way the world ran, bring it to peace instead of never ending war. Finding a darker set of scorch marks on the ground, indicating the original blast of the first cube, he quickly found the hatch that hid the cube. Summoning the sword to his hands, he jammed the blade into the thin line where the doors connected, using it as a lever to pry them apart. After a loud squeal and nearly snapping his sword he pried the doors open and the cube lifted out of the ground. Forcing the nanites of his suit to lift the crate, he quickly moved away from the corpses and all the chaos of the base. Charging into the vehicle bay he yelled “Are you out Whiskey?” for a second there was no response, then a man with an English accent replied “Of course I’m out you idiot, I am an A.I. Fragment, my processing moves at a speed 100 times greater than your simple thoughts!” All Justin could do was breathe a sigh of relief as he climbed in the Black Knight.

  
The cube dropped with a heavy “thud” as the nanites returned to Justin's suit. As the cargo bay doors shut, and the roof of the room opened to clear blue skies, he turned on the engines and started ascending. It was a moment later that the ship was in the air.  
Watching the bay doors shut he said, “Whiskey execute command protocol Jericho on Phoenix base” to which he received a sarcastic “Yes master!” Within seconds the base was gone, consumed by an anti-matter charge, leaving the outer walls to cave in on them-selves. After a few moments, Whisky interrupted his thoughts with “So shall I plot your course too?”  
“Yes, I want to go to-“  
“Antarctica, yes, wise choice, safe for us.”  
“How did you-“  
“Know? Simple, it was the only place to go other than Hikari Island.”  
“Then let's go.” As the jet shifted to head for Antarctica, Justin laid a guardian badge in each seat, after making sure they were secure, he cleared his throat and spoke in a commanding tone “Phoenix.” All the badges glowed and then became pure black discs, signifying that they had been reset.


End file.
